MRAGAO: The youth and insured employees of South Goa hotels have been paying for a service that has never been useful to them. A rough calculation suggests that crores of rupees are being deducted towards medical help for employees of South Goa hotels every month without any benefit to them whatsoever. These employees have now made up their minds to avoid this non-yielding investment.
South Goa has over 35 five-star hotels and over 100 three-star and five-star hotels. Big hotels, such as Leela Hotel and Holiday Inn, have thousands of employees, of which over 60 percent pay ESI through direct deductions through salary. The Leela Hotel, for example, has over 600 employees whose salary is deducted regularly for the ESI. However, it is known that very few patients have managed to take the benefits of the ESI deduction.
Aldrin Luis, who works at the food and beverage department of Leela Hotel, has been at the forefront of the fight to get the employees their rights.
Speaking about his experiences, he said, “I have never been able to take the benefit of the deductions for over 15 years of my service. This is because in the past, I had to take rounds of the ESI dispensary for simple medicines.”
He further said, “I had suffered an appendix problem, which I got treated in a private hospital and filed a claim at the ESI. I haven’t received the claim for the same.” “All the youth are pumping in crores of rupees in ESI for their medical safety, but all the money is being wasted as the youth never bother to go to ESI nor do they bother to claim the benefits of the scheme,” he added.
Damu Devidas, an employee of a hotel on coastline, said, “I have attempted to get the benefit of the ESI, but failed. I was told to go to a different hospital and claim the bill later, which was not acceptable from such a huge facility.”
The recent case of Leo D’Souza had exposed how hotel employees, who are mostly from the minority community, were forced to spend from their pockets for medical facilities even after paying for ESI. After Herald published an article on Leo’s plight, action was taken and Leo received the dialysis bags.
The health insurance benefits offered under the scheme are categorised into Medical Benefits and Cash Benefits. From the inception, the ESI scheme has been helping insured persons and their dependents, who are eligible to full medical facilities, as per requirement, from day one of entering the insurable employment.
Facilities like patient care, domiciliary visits, specialist and diagnostic services, hospitalisation, super-specialty treatment, free supply of drugs and dressings, provision of artificial aids and appliances, besides immunisation and family welfare services, are extended to the insured persons. However, the huge cash and other medical benefits have not been provided to the insured persons due to the sheer lack of proper execution. Some hotels in South Goa are also heard to be violating labour laws by not registering their employees for ESI, thereby bypassing expenses. These employees are vulnerable to bad situations if they are not registered. Sadly, even the ESI or the Labour Department has no mechanism to keep a check on these rampant violations.
Luis, who has been the lone person fighting for the rights of the hotel employees of South Goa, has brought this to the notice of the authorities, but was told that no action had been taken against the erring hotels.
